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A big win for the US and a win-win for the European Union in the sense that it brings stability to the trade relationship. For the US it brings a level playing field in world trade that had suffered fo far too long from unfair advantages taken by Japan, Canada, European Union and other nations, in addition to the serious distortions of the world trade system with China's state version of capitalism financing an export model. So the first step was to straighten out the situation with partners and allies the US has supported in the past 75 years. US European Union Trade Agreement is reached July 27, 2025, at meeting between Von Der Leyen of Eu and DJT of the US in Scotland. It includes $750 billion EU purchases over 3 years of US oil and gas, LNG, nuclear fuel, semiconductors, etc and $650 billion in investments in US, including military purchases. It puts a 15% tariff on all products from the EU entering the US, replaces the tariff of about 5% under Biden. On Pharmaceuticals it is what the US president decides says Leyen, though for now it is included.  The EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefovic says- “I think that what was most important for us was to make sure we would have this predictability and we would have stability for our businesses." ...

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Strategic siting in renewable rich areas (Dallas center the largest is in renewable rich area) and fair cost allocation to not burden small businesses and households are major issues in Data Center building. Data centers for AI -rows and rows of servers 5000 in hyperscale data centers- used 4% of the US total electricity use in 2024. This is growing rapidly. By 2030 this is expected to grow by more than double, by 133%. About 60% of this to power the servers and 30% for cooling the servers. About a third of these servers are located in Virginia, Texas and California. How will this affect Cost of Living concerns, affect electricity prices? Carnegie Mellon working with North Carolina State University did the modeling on the energy and emissions implications of data center buildup in the US in their Open Outlook Initiative. A 8% annual increase in electricity prices is expected on average and as high as 25% in Virginia by 2030.  Total of about 40% increase over 5 years. Between 2014 and 2024 10 year period average cost for a home electricity use went up 25% from $114 a month to $142. This would now go up by 40% to about $200 by 2030 in just 5 years significantly impacting cost of living in the US. In which states will it strain electricity grids? In 2023 data centers consumed 26% of the total electricity supply in Virginia. In North Dakota 15%, Nebraska 12%, Iowa 11%, Oregon 11% according to Electric Power Research Institute. What are the energy types used? Natural gas is used for 40% of the data center electricity, wind and solar 25%, nuclear 20% and coal 15%.   ...

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President Trump says the terms set in the deal Boris Johnson negotiated with the European Union preclude any deal with the U.S. He says after looking at the agreement that "we can't make a trade deal with the UK."  Trump made similar comments for prime minister Theresa May when he said that May's strategy for Brexit would "kill" any chance of a trade deal with the U.S. Mr. Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, has promised to negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.S. after delivering Brexit. A separate report in DW.com showed that countries with large potential in trade for Britain such as India are also less likely to sign a deal with Britain because the EU is a much larger trading partner with India. This could have an effect on Mr. Johnson's election campaign.

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Cornyn is a 5 term Republican senator from Texas who was once a rival of Mitch McConnell for Senate Majority Leader. He lost in the Texas Republican primary to challenger Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas. Paxton got the Texas Republican base to back him with CJT's endorsement. The result Paxton wins by 64% to 36% and heads into a fight for the Senate seat with Talarico of the Democrats. Texas voted for DJT by a margin of 14%. Democrats are targeting this Senate seat with huge fundraising. Ted Cruz defended his Senate seat against Rep. Allred with ad spending reaching $210 million in 2024. Talarico has raised $27 million in 3 months, Paxton $7 million. It shows that regardless of which party, both parties spend heavily and raise enormous sums making them beholden to special interests that make it difficult to change aspects of the system such as runaway pharmaceutical costs, cost of living, or to regulate banks, social media, cyber currency, and AI. The result is that Congress has less credibility and poor approval ratings with the public than ever. US Congress has disapproval rating of 90%, only 10% approve of its conduct and performance. Among Democrats 3%, Republicans 20%, and Independents 11%. ...

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Witkoff- Putin peace talks in Moscow August 6, 2025 as DJT talks about further sanctions.

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With vaccine hesitancy in the US the goal of vaccinating a large part of the US population is still elusive. Less than half of the US population is fully vaccinated as of July 30. The vaccination rates in the US are now much slower than India even taking into account the population difference. The vaccination in India is at the rate of 4 to 5 million a day for the past week in India. In the US this report in The Guardian shows 4.7 million vaccinated in the past 2 weeks. On July 30 856,000 people were vaccinated in the US compared to over 5 million in India.  Newspaper reporting that encourages vaccine hesitancy people to delay getting vaccinated because of poorly reported headlines is adding to vaccine hesitancy in the US. This has led to much frustration at the White House. The threat of the Delta variant is making more people to take vaccination. Southern states are seeing a jump in vaccinations. Many prominent Republicans are now endorsing vaccination.  One of the problems in tackling the Delta variant is the confusing nature of the CDC guidance on masks. On May 13 CDC issued guidance saying masks were not necessary indoors and outdoors. Now 3 months later in July the CDC says the threat of Delta variant means mask wearing is essential particularly indoors because of the higher transmissibility of the delta variant.  ...

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Economic activity at the American base and hospital at Kaiserslautern, Germany. 36,000 American military personnel at this base and it provides jobs and work for the surrounding area. It is 73 miles from Frankfurt.

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Except for professional schools in law and medicine masters degrees in many fields have high unemployment in 2026. 40% of employers are not hiring MBA's in 2026 according to Drexel University research. By 2021 after 20 years there was 69% increase in Masters degrees programs to 33500 programs in the US. The surge in programs for Masters degree in many subjects is now showing strains. Many employers knowing the impact of AI are questioning whether a Masters degree is that necessary for performance, and some are deciding on the basis of whether a candidate can do the job with his or her skillset.

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What is California's position in nuclear and renewables and does the substance the facts justify the image it promotes of being energy friendly and using renewables? Answer is NO  because only 9% of its total end use energy consumption according to EIA figures (2023) comes from renewables. It uses no coal yet about 60% of its energy is from crude oil. During the current crisis in the war with Iran is California an example to follow? The answer is No because it has not used renewable energy the way Germany has or EU has, and it has not managed its crude oil well by not using domestic crude oil instead relying on imports, which only burden the global needs for crude oil coming from a state with capacity to do lot better. By comparison Germany gets 23% of its total energy consumption from renewables compared to 9% for California, and for Germany 60% of its total electricity production is from renewables compared to 46% for California. EIA data shown here from US government data does not paint a very energy friendly picture. California's imports of crude oil at 75% of consumption and drop in refineries from 48 to 3 shows it has not managed the oil refining side of energy in the best way possible. How does it rate in making good use of energy? Here it uses 174 million BTU's per capita no different than New York at 174 and about the same as Florida and Washington DC, Massachusetts, Maryland.  And Germany has achieved 122 million BTU per capita showing California far behind. How does it rate in using renewables and nuclear? As it is a state with urban and suburban sprawl with large driving distances it uses a lot of crude oil for transportation. Petroleum or crude oil use is 58% of total energy use, Natural gas 25, Renewables are only 3%, electricity generation is 14% of which only 46% is from renewables. California is NOT the model for the US. We have to look elsewhere for answers.   ...

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The largest US military community of outside the US is Kaiserslautern 73 miles from Frankfurt in Germany. Kaiserslautern is 10 miles from the Ramstein Base which is where the US European Command is located. US president is considering reducing the US military presence in Germany, as it shifts responsibilities for European defence to Europe. Failure of the EU , Germany, Britain, Italy and France to support the US in its Iran effort to get nuclear materials transferred outside to Russia or some other country is leading to a rift in trans-atlantic relations. 

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Russia repeats call for retreat from Donbass in peace negotiations Jan 23 2026.

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Federal data showing international and domestic migration by US state and the natural growth in US Population 2026. California, Hawaii, Vermont, New Mexico lost population because of domestic outmigration, lower international migration and natural birth/deaths led to net negative growth. Population growth was fastest in Idaho, Utah, Washington, Texas, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, in southern and western mountain states. Births were higher in these states in addition to the domestic in-migration from other states. Population is slowing to about 0.5% after the big surge in international migration under the Biden Administration from failed states such as Venezuela, Guatemala, and from Mexico at the southern Border- by 1.8 million to reach 341.8 million. One of the problems is integrating newcomers- the Movement for Literacy in the US is to ensure new US citizens have an essential grasp of the ideas that shaped the nation and civic information, knowledge of the English language. Another is burden on social services needed and healthcare services which were under strain under the Biden administration open border policy. Also significant is the concerns of residents for homelessness and safety in urban areas.  ...

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Students are failing in math and need remedial preparation. Professors are alarmed at UCLA and UC San Diego. Governor Newsom pushed his not well thought out initiative to remove SAT/ACT preparation so that it would help disadvantaged students when it is exactly that kind of rigor that all students need. And to help disadvantaged student special programs and teachers should be setup before college entry not remove rigorous preparation requirements that all student can take and benefit from preparation. There is no substitute for discipline and hard work in education and this starts early in the K-12 process and goes through all the level to 12th grade when the preparation all over the world gets rigorous, as it is in Asian countries and in Europe.

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Autism therapy billing WSJ investigation showing everything that is wrong in America's healthcare system- greed, questionable billing one out of network child getting billed over $900,000. This WSJ report says only needed is a high school diploma to start a autism therapy center and easier than setting up a child care center. Therapy costing $20 an hour billed to insurance companies at $89 an hour. Until health care abuses are checked and criminal penalties imposed for abuses in healthcare to clean up the entire system,  this only goes to show thatany universal healthcare system would be loaded up with such costs making it too costly for the government to implement. This also includes the way people take care of themselves, their nutrition, their eating habits, their lifestyles, if these are not healthy, this has to be transformed before any universal healthcare system can take place as it would be loaded up with costs that should be taken care of by prevention, by healthy lifestyles, nutrition. Doing this creates a healthy people, and there can be no happiness without health and healthy nutrition, healthy lifestyles, healthy living. It is also the first job of government to create a healthy environment, to encourage and promote the literacy that enables positive health outcomes, enables cost effective delivery of health services. ...

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From 2007 to 2022 US electricity demand flattened with new energy efficient technologies. It is now poised to increase from 2022 to 2035 and the process is happening  with approval of new natural gas plants and new data centers, new manufacturing plants needing large amounts of renewable energy. This say Plumer and Popovich in NYT could very well upset president Biden's plans to get 100% of energy from renewables by 2035 and cut greenhouse gas emissions by half to tackle climate change. Utilities are moving ahead with putting up new natural gas plants, and new data centers are needed for the shift to remote work since 2020, electric automobile and chip making plants are coming up at a rapid pace. Without a sustained effort the climate change action needed may not take place with the long lead times to bring renewable solar, wind and other energy and put it in place for transmission. This report looks at the data centers coming up in Virginia and the EV manufacturing plants in Georgia as examples for the new demand and how it could upset plans for climate change action. ...

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US Supreme Court decision on Voting Rights Act to cost 18 Black members of Congress their seats in US Congress.

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US naval blockade of Iran includes tracking the 1500 ships in the shadow fleet of Iran that operate in the area- how the US is doing it.

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India's prime minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress on June 8, 2016. The close ties between India and the U.S. were enhanced by the good personal relationship between U.S. president Obama and Modi. With a change in administration in 2017 both sides are eager to secure the foundations of the relationship, with India's agreement to the Climate Change Agreement, and other steps.

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This DD India video shows the prime ministers of all the Nordic Nations in meetings with prime minster Modi of India- the prime ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland. India has strengthened relations on 3 levels - the bilateral, Nordics as a group, Nordics as part of European Union, for close understanding and close cooperation over the next 15 years. Norway has a plan for 15 year collaboration with India in a range of fields including for its Sovereign Fund. It is now at the level of a new Green and Strategic Partnership that shares close goals and a common spirit. The PM of India used the word "sambandh", and the PM of Iceland brought this up as a spiritual basis of the cooperation that was the main and common feeling bringing these nations of Northern Europe into a spiritual bonding with India over the next 15 years around shared values of democracy, rules based order, and rule of law, everything that India treasures in Western civilization and Europe in Indian civilization. The relationship is shared across all fields including scientific and technological cooperation, education, space, agriculture and fisheries, industry, renewable energy, defense, other fields. ...

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Ukraine visits by US Secretary of Army, Dan Driscoll, chief of staff Army  Randy Georgeand Chief US Army Europe, Chris Donahue, November 19. 2025. In the middle of a period of escalating drone attacks over Ukraine, and Ukraine strikes of refinery targets in Russia. Russian terms have not changed and call for Ukraine ceding territory and cutting its army. The EU and Germany, and Republicans in Congress are likely to oppose any capitulation by Ukraine after Russia launched the invasion, with Britain and France supporting Germany led by chancellor Merz.

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Fiona Katauskas of the Guardian has this cartoon of "I just love the way he always speaks his mind," about the choice before Americans in 2024. Workers were being ignored in 2016- not anymore. In 2024 there is also action for climate change, for infrastructure building, for manufacturing renewal, for building working class incomes and wages, to consider. America has a choice for the right Way Forward.